Current Wyndham Vale lake tragedy

[BORK]

Okay result. The main annoying thing being the youngest ones death meaning less in the eyes of the law and only warranting 12 months. I do not believe Infanticide should be allowed to apply where an act of murder has occurred concurrently.

 

[Tyrone Time]

Farquharson got a minimum of 33 years, this POS gets minimum of 20. Why?
Both child killers and liars! And that poor little baby was worth 1 fckn year? Disgusting!
Hope they both burn in hell after getting some prison justice.

 

[Donners]

Farquharson got a minimum of 33 years, this POS gets minimum of 20. Why?

For starters, he ran two trials. She pleaded guilty. That's a big discount right there - the judge said that she would have got life had she not pleaded guilty.

Not to mention various other differences in their personal circumstances.

 

[TheWoodenSlug]

Okay result. The main annoying thing being the youngest ones death meaning less in the eyes of the law and only warranting 12 months. I do not believe Infanticide should be allowed to apply where an act of murder has occurred concurrently.

That makes sense to me, though law is not my long suit by any stretch. Any lawyers in the house that can shed some light on why that shouldn't be the case, from a legal perspective?

 

[kickazz]

Not to mention various other differences in their personal circumstances.

Like gender?

 

[tandino]

And back to Sudan when the sentence is completed. I think on balance, a pretty good result.

 

[DarwinRoo]

Like gender?

Like motive

 

[IKE TURNER]

we let her into the country gave her the chance of a great life which thousands of people want and how are we repaid? 3 innocent children murdered and taxpayers will have to fork out millions of dollars over the next 20 years to keep her imprisoned, great stuff...

 

[Donners]

That makes sense to me, though law is not my long suit by any stretch. Any lawyers in the house that can shed some light on why that shouldn't be the case, from a legal perspective?

On a literal reading, it is not unreasonable to have Infanticide and Murder together. The former is, after all, conduct which would amount to the latter but for specific circumstances (the balance of the mind being disturbed as a result of the birth of that child within 24 months).

In practical terms, though, it makes little sense to have massively reduced culpability for one child but not the others when they were killed by the same act, and with the same state of mind.

It wouldn't be such an issue if Vic just made it Manslaughter with a 25-year max (as NSW does) rather than a mere 5-year max, which makes the difference so stark in this case.

It's such an odd offence. I'd rather it was wound up in the mental impairment defence, even if that needs a bit of adjustment to cater for it.

 

[Run n Spread]

For all the talk of terrorism, soft on crime, drugs, this is a tragedy and needs urgent urgent addressing.

Infanticide, however rare is not unheard of.

We need unflinching honesty about what is driving people to commit these acts? And I mean real honesty. Not some bullshit sloganeering abortion is wrong, Parenthood is life changing, some Margret Court vs Lefty posturing.

A mother in this case simply could not cope. A father in the Farquhasen case let the lives of his children be over rode by his hatred of his ex. Why? Why did it get to this stage?

I for once don't have an opinion and don't know. I could guess and rant but they won't do any good.

 

[Truckosaurus]

For all the talk of terrorism, soft on crime, drugs, this is a tragedy and needs urgent urgent addressing.

Infanticide, however rare is not unheard of.

We need unflinching honesty about what is driving people to commit these acts? And I mean real honesty. Not some bullshit sloganeering abortion is wrong, Parenthood is life changing, some Margret Court vs Lefty posturing.

A mother in this case simply could not cope. A father in the Farquhasen case let the lives of his children be over rode by his hatred of his ex. Why? Why did it get to this stage?

I for once don't have an opinion and don't know. I could guess and rant but they won't do any good.

I think in this case a significant amount of it comes down to her being completely excluded from the Sudanese community. Not even the kids' father was living with her, despite leaving his wife. That sort of rejection and isolation would contribute a fair bit towards a mental illness.

 

[Donners]

I think in this case a significant amount of it comes down to her being completely excluded from the Sudanese community. Not even the kids' father was living with her, despite leaving his wife. That sort of rejection and isolation would contribute a fair bit towards a mental illness.

Not to mention her background.

32 You have had an extraordinarily difficult life – a life that most of us can hardly imagine. You were born on 20 June 1979 and are therefore now 37 years of age. As I earlier noted you are from the town of Wau in South Sudan. As a child, in accordance with the accepted practice of your religion, you lived in a family where your father had children from three wives including your mother. All told there were 16 children.

33 Your early life was settled and positive however the civil war in south Sudan unsurprisingly had a serious impact on your life and that of your family. The effects of that event on you seemed to begin in 2003 when you were 24 years of age. Members of your family were killed and, as your counsel put it, life for you and your family became chaotic.

34 Your education finished at something equivalent to year 10 level and although you speak more than one language your reading and writing skills are limited. In 1996 you established a relationship with your husband who was soldier in the rebel army of South Sudan and he is the father of your daughters. In 2001 you took the children to Eritrea. As I understand it, your husband was killed sometime afterwards and there was at least the suggestion that his death occurred in front of you and your children though your account was that it occurred while you were in Eritrea. Consistent with your approach to dealing with issues in your life, you seemed reluctant to in any way rely on this incident preferring to say that you were not present.

35 In a later report from Dr Sullivan on 28 March 2017, you confirmed that, during a militia raid on your village you saw your husband shot dead and his body burnt and that following that you were r*ped until you were unconscious. Dr Sullivan thus reported that, understandably, you have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder the severity of which is mild and overlaps with other features of a mood disorder from which you also suffer and which I will shortly come to.

36 After the death of your husband, in accordance with custom you then became the wife to your husband’s younger brother and that union produced a daughter Elei now aged 13 years. The relationship did not go well and there was conflict.

37 During 2003 you left your second husband and Sudan, and for 18 days with three children you walked to Uganda, foraging for food as you went. You and your children survived attacks by hiding in bushes. When you arrived, you lived for a time in a refugee camp and then for security reasons you had to move to another camp in Kampala.

38 You were registered as a refugee with the United Nations and you applied for refugee status in Australia where you were accepted becoming a permanent resident in this country. The visa issued to you was a Global Special Humanitarian visa. You and your children arrived in Australia in 2005, having been interviewed by an officer of the relevant Commonwealth government department and having had your claims expressly accepted.

39 In Australia you began in Sydney then moved to Melbourne and lived in Sunshine. In 2009 you met Joseph Manyang. There were problems because of conflict with Manyang’s wife but nonetheless, commencing in 2010 you and he had four children between then and 2013.

40 Your life in Melbourne was difficult and you seem to have been burdened with debt incurred form every day expenses.

41 The birth of the last child Bol apparently resulted in a significant postpartum haemorrhage which required a blood transfusion and also involved the doctors and nurses who were treating you having difficulty in getting your agreement to procedures that would save your life.

42 The birth of that child also appeared to mark increasing depression which Dr Sullivan described as a major depressive disorder. You told your close relative Abouk Kon that you did not recover after the birth and that you were always sick with migraine headaches and dizziness. You said you were seeing the family doctor.

43 Abouk Kon described an occasion a year or so before this incident where you rang her and said you felt like you were dying. Abouk Kon drove to Melbourne and found you lying on the floor. She and a neighbour assisted you and you recovered. Your eldest child Akoi confirmed that after the birth of Bol you were often tired and would sleep all day.

44 In 2013 you considered moving to Morwell to get away from some of the problems you were experiencing in Melbourne and you discussed this with Abouk Kon. In late 2014 you again began to think about a move to Morwell. You complained that you were lonely in Melbourne and there were rumours about you in the Sudanese community. By this time Akoi had almost finished secondary school. Joseph Manyang was always aware of your intention to move to Morwell and you and he discussed it not long before these offences were committed. Indeed some arrangements had been made for you to go Morwell by train with the children on 8 April 2015.

45 Thus the pressures on you included the difficulties arising from your relationship with Joseph Manyang, a degree of ostracism from your community and very severe financial problems.

46 You having committed these offences and being presently in custody, the task of caring for your surviving children has now fallen to your eldest child Akoi. You are well aware of the burden that places on her. Akoi has described her predicament in a letter to me dated 6 March 2017.

47 In custody you have been classified as a protection prisoner and consequently live in an atmosphere of isolation.

48 It is important to recognise that despite this very difficult background there is nothing to indicate that you have ever been involved in any form of criminal activity; certainly not here in Australia. It is not suggested that you have any propensity for violence or other anti-social conduct.

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/vic/VSC/2017/285.html

 

[Snake_Baker]

The gender double standards are amusing.

Only shit kills kids. I hope the slag rots in there.